Father Michael Barrow

Reflection 4 March 2018

Enter your text here .To prepare for Sunday Mass it is a good idea to read and give thought to the readings in your missal or Bible. Here are some questions to ponder. First Reading [Exodus 20:1-17] What is the difference between the Ten Commandments and the two that Jesus emphasised — love God and love your neighbor? Second Reading [1 Corinthians 1:22-25] To what do the "foolishness" and "weakness" of God refer? Are the crosses in your own life "stumbling blocks" or stepping stones for you? Gospel [John 2:13-25] Jesus drove the salespeople out of the temple. If you are a temple too, "a temple of the Holy Spirit," is there anything that needs to be "driven out"?

Gentle Jesus meek and mild. . . . If that is how you think of our Lord, this Sunday's gospel will come as a bit of a shock. But first think for a moment what your own image of Jesus is. This is most important because it is how you see God.Jesus is God in human terms. Hopefully the meek and mild image we had of Jesus when we were children has developed, so that the most striking thing we see in God made man is the sympathy and compassion he feels for people in distress. While Christ's healing the sick and disabled is an expression of God's power, far more important is how he felt for them. God feels for us so deeply.

But there is also a place for anger when faced with injustice and God can become angry.What had started in the Temple in Jerusalem as a service to help people who came to offer sacrifice to God, gradually turned into a money-making business more important than the sacrifice itself.When Jesus saw that business and profit were taking over and money was being idolised and dethroning God, he could not ignore it.His pity for the people being misled by their priests so angered Jesus that he could not remain silent at the harm that was being done. There are times when, like Jesus, we cannot keep silent and must rage at injustice. "First they turned on the gays but I did not speak out because I'm not gay. Then they turned on the immigrants, but I did not speak out because I'm not an immigrant. Then they came for the Muslims but I did not speak out because I'm not a Muslim. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."